When Timothy O’Shea arrived at the Cliff Mine in 1857, he was exposed to many technological innovations that were being adopted in the Lake Superior copper region. At the Cliff, the company had installed powerful steam-powered engines for hoisting rock, pumping out mine shafts and operating the company’s Cornish-style drop stamps in the 1840s and early 1850s. In 1860, the company adopted a mechanical rock breaker that rendered roasting mine rock obsolete. In 1865, the company installed a mechanical ladder, a man engine in one of its shafts to save men labor and time when going into or coming out the mine. It broke and killed his father.

After he went to work at the Calumet Mine, in 1866, O’Shea was exposed to additional advancements. In 1867, Calumet’s superintendent, Alexander Agassiz, installed Ball steam-powered stamps in the mills he built for the Calumet as well as for the Hecla Mine. He also ordered a locomotive for the short-line railroad being constructed under his supervision.

About a dozen miles to the south, the Franklin mine, which had been the first in the district to experiment with Ball’s steam-powered stamps, was again in the vanguard of experimenting with new technology when it began experimenting with a machine rock drill powered by compressed air.

Back in Massachusetts, where O’Shea worked in the Hoosac Tunnel when he first came to the United States from Ireland in 1856, a mechanical rock drill, powered by compressed air, was introduced in 1866. The Brooks, Gates, and Burleigh drill, wrote Larry C. Hoffman, in his 1999 article, The Rock Drill and Civilization, in the American Heritage’s Invention & Technology, No. 15, Issue 1, was first used in the tunnel in June, 1866, when air compressors to power it were made available. It was not considered a success for several reasons. First was its weight, 240 pounds, consisted of more than 80 pounds and pounded itself to death against the rock face of the tunnel. Charles Burleigh made improvements to the prototype, it was more durable, and caught the attention of tunnelers and miners alike.

Keweenaw County Historical Society
Evolution in mining was almost constant around the turn of the 20th century. This photograph shows two men working on an air-powered rock drill, which were in use in most mines in the Copper Country by the early 1880s. The same time high-explosives replaced black powder. But even small things evolved, such as the lights on the hats of these two miners, which helps to date this photo. The lights are carbide-fueled lamps and came into use shortly after 1900. By 1912, they were used almost exclusively. Between the large drill and the carbide lamp, we can safely argue that this photograph was taken after 1910, but before the 1913 strike which was the result of companies converting to the use of one-man drills.

“The new technology saved enormous amounts of time,” wrote Hoffman, “but not necessarily money, especially where cheap labor was plentiful. Tunnelers were quicker than miners to adopt the new technology, since speed of completion was generally more important than keeping costs down; mine owners, especially small ones, lagged behind in modernizing their operations.”

In the Lake Superior district, as the Franklin Mine learned, the problem with Burleigh’s drill was not so much a matter of money but of size. The Burleigh drill, with its bar, clamp and platform, was just too big and cumbersome (not to mention heavy) to fit well into the standard copper mine drifts which averaged four feet wide and six feet high. Charles Burleigh’s drill may have worked well in constructing a tunnel big enough for a train, but a railroad tunnel and a mine drift were two different things. Still, though, the drill showed potential. Other variations appeared on the market, some met with failure, others with success. Still, local companies continued to search for the drill that would best adopt itself to the unique situations of the Lake Superior copper mines.

Eventually they would find ones that worked. The Annual Report of the Commissioner of Mineral Statistics of the State of Michigan for 1880 stated that the Osceola Mining Company was operating 15 Rand Company drills, each worked by four men and two boys, two men and a boy for each shift. The new air drill, and its required crew, gave rise in the Copper Country to a popular saying when referring to the weight of an object: “That’d take two men and a boy to lift.”

Mineral Commissioner, Charles E. Wright wrote in his report of the Osceola that “In fact, the underground work is done as far as possible by machinery.”

At the Allouez mine in 1880, that company still operated two Burleigh drills but, as the Mineral Commissioner reported, “a Rand drill is on the ground for trial.”

At the Calumet and Hecla company, O’Shea was undoubtedly working on a Rand drill. C&H was apparently impressed with the quality of machinery manufactured by the Rand Company. Scientific American, Vol. XLII, No. 26, for December 25, 1880 stated that the Rand Co. had “recently furnished the most powerful air compressing plant” for use with its Rand Little Giant rock drills, and that the compressing plant was “now in successful operation at the Calumet and Hecla mines on Lake Superior.”

A Historic Research Study for the Keweenaw National Historical Park, prepared by Larry Lankton in 2005, reported that trials with the Rand drill showed that it allowed fewer miners to produce more rock; by 1882, Calumet and Hecla’s production increases with 20% fewer miners. That increase was probably also due the use of high explosives.

The Mineral Commissioner’s 1880 report indicated that C&H was already using No. 2 Hercules high explosives, when high explosives were quickly replacing black powder in most mines throughout the Copper Country.

James Fisher, in his article, Historical Sketch of the Lake Superior Copper District, which appeared in the 1924 edition of the Michigan College of Mines Keweenaw, wrote that John Mabbs, agent at the Isle Royale mine in 1864, was the first to introduce high explosives to the district, when he purchased 4,000 pounds of pure nitroglycerin, which was shipped in 100 tins. It was not met with enthusiasm in the Portage Lake district. Local ordinances did not permit him have it unloaded at the Houghton wharves; he tried to store it in a powder house above Hancock, but local authorities ordered him to get rid of it. He hid it in one of the stopes in the Isle Royale mine. He then made an agreement with the agent of the Huron mine to experiment with the explosive in that mine, and stored a 40-pound can of the explosive in a building on the property. Huron’s miners learned of the whole thing and refused to work. They found out where the can of it was stored and blew it up. Eventually, says nobelprize.org, scientist Alfred Nobel found a way to stabilize nitroglycerin, (clycerol trinitrate) by mixing it with something called Kieselguhr, or diatomite, into a paste. He then developed a blasting cap that would detonate it under controlled conditions.

Much more explosive and powerful than black powder, it was another new tool miners were required to learn how to use in addition to the new air-powered rock drills.

O’Shea was one of the thousands of Lake Superior copper miners who was faced with the challenges of rapidly changing methods of mining. Basically, all of their skills, all of their experience, all of their expertise, by 1885, meant very little anymore.